CHICAGO— Today’s global food supply chain has become increasingly complex as companies seek greater efficiencies to feed the world’s growing population. Product tracing has emerged as a critical tool for increasing the transparency of the attributes and origin of food products―from farm to processing to retail and food service, or to the family table.

On July 12th, The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Board of Directors approved the launch of a new food traceability center designed to protect and improve our global food supply. The Global Food Traceability Center will serve as an authoritative, scientific, and unbiased source for food traceability. Currently there is no single entity, public or private, that brings together key stakeholders in the agri-food system to collaborate on providing timely product tracing solutions.

When food-related problems occur, time is the enemy as health and lives are at stake, as well as the livelihoods of industries, companies and employees. This Center will assist companies to better trace the paths of products through the supply chain to improve food safety, mitigate risk and avoid devastating health consequences and economic impacts to the food system.

“We will create a focal point where industry, academic institutions, government, foundations and consumer groups can discuss, collaborate, conduct research, adopt best practices and implement practical and actionable traceability solutions for the food system, ” said IFT Executive Vice President Barbara Byrd Keenan.

IFT has been partnering with regulatory agencies, academia and industry to conduct research, education and outreach in food science since 1999. IFT has been a visible leader in food traceability since 2008. In June 2012, IFT concluded two food product tracing pilots for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as mandated by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

The formation of the Center is the result of three Traceability Research Summits IFT held in 2011. These summits were a part of the Traceability Improvement Initiative (TII) launched by IFT with seed funding support from BASF Chemical Company, Underwriters Laboratories, and National Fisheries Institute. The industry views IFT as an unbiased visionary capable of managing conflicting viewpoints by focusing on science and not endorsing one particular solution.

For more than 70 years, IFT has existed to advance the science of food. Our nonprofit scientific society—more than 18,000 members from more than 100 countries—brings together food scientists, technologists and related professions from academia, government, and industry. For more information, please visit ift.org.